I find it quite ironic-and perhaps a bit amusing-that after all of the debate surrounding multiracial identity and the United States Census, the most famous son of an interracial couple and the daughter of the most famous interracial couple, checked only one racial identity on their census form. It would appear that the heralding of an era of multiraciality via Loving v. Virginia and an era of post-raciality via the election of President Obama leaves much to ponder. The truth is that our rose-colored view of a landmark court case and a landmark election tends to obscure the fact that America has been multiracial since its inception.

Mestizaje is commonly known as the mixture of the European race with the Indians living in the Americas, something that began very long ago when the Americas were first being conquered. According to anthropologists on Mestizaje and Indigenous Identities, a majority of the Mexican population is the genetic product of mixing of â€śAmerindians with Europeansâ€ť and mestizaje is a biological fact. However, taking this into consideration then raises another question, which of the two ends is granted the most importance. A mixture in race also involves a mixture in cultures and according to these anthropologists; the European culture was always seen as the better one. â€śEuropeannessâ€ť was associated with ideas of progress and modernization. The living indigenous people were seen as a backward and traditional â€śin need of modernization and progressâ€ť but this progressiveness was defined by having whiter skin, thus looking more indigenous became socially degrading (Mestizaje). In other words, mestizos became a combination of the oppressor and the oppressed. As Margaret CantĂş SĂˇnchez puts it in A Mestizaje of Epistemologies in American Indian Stories and Ceremony, â€śtoday Americans must accept the fact that we are all a mixture of cultures and must learn to accept the struggle with being both a part of the culture of the oppressed and the oppressors.â€ť…